England star Jonny Bairstow had a wonderful outing with the bat on Day 3 of the ongoing rescheduled fifth Test against India at Edgbaston in Birmingham. The right-handed batter continued his sensational run and smashed a tremendous century to help England reach 284 after their top order failure in response to India’s 416.
Bairstow made 106 off 140 deliveries with the help of 14 fours and a couple of sixes. Though, much before he accelerated his innings, there was a moment which created a lot of buzz as Bairstow got involved in a short verbal clash with Indian superstar Virat Kohli.
The former India captain seemed a little unhappy with Bairstow after the latter said something to him. Kohli didn’t back down and asked Bairstow to stop talking and focus on batting. The verbal volleys even forced the two on-field umpires, Aleen Dar and Richard Kettleborough, to intervene and calm things down between the two players.
It appeared that the altercation helped Bairstow as he took off from thereon and completely shattered the Indian bowling attack. Notably, the Yorkshire batter was just 13 from 61 deliveries before involving in a heated exchange with Kohli. But after that, Bairstow exhibited his beast mode and struck 93 off his next 79 deliveries.
Post the day’s play, Bairstow shared his thoughts on the major talking point regarding his verbal spat with Kohli. The Englishman played down the possibility of any controversy as he reckoned it was just part and parcel of the game.
“We’re playing Test cricket, we’re two competitors, that’s why we play the game, and that’s what brings the best out of us,” said Bairstow on Sky Sports.
“You want to be out there, you want to do your best, and you want to win. Whatever it takes, you want to get your team over the line. That’s part and parcel of the game,” he added.
Here is the video:
Bairstow vs Kohli 😳
Jonny Bairstow has played down an old-fashioned battle of words with Virat Kohli 😅pic.twitter.com/mnry6F4Zj0
— Sky Sports Cricket (@SkyCricket) July 3, 2022
